The best life insurance for persons over age 60 is usually some sort of Permanent life insurance policy. Of course, some 60 year old's have temporary needs, such as wanting to be able to pay off a mortgage. For those needs, Term insurance is fine. But if there is any desire to use the life insurance proceeds for final expense, or to leave money to the grandchildren, or other purposes that would require that the life insurance still be in effect when death occurs at any age, then Permanent life insurance is needed.
When younger, an Insured person might count on the convertibility feature of Term life insurance to provide Permanent coverage, if needed, later on. But most Term policies are only convertible to permanent policies to between age 65 to age 75, depending on the policy. If a 60 year old person purchases a 20 year Term policy and does not pass away before age 80, the policy will jump sky high in premiums and there will no opportunity to convert it to a permanent policy at that time.
Agent Owner, Gilmore Insurance Services, Marysville, Washington State
What the best life insurance for over age 60? Well, first off the question is how long do you want it inforce? 10 years, 20 years? the rest of your life?
For the first two the answer is pretty easy, level term life. You are looking for coverage for a period of time, not a lifetime. You know the odds will be good that you're still alive after those years and will have to pay a higher cost to continue.
For your lifetime, what ever that may be? Whole life while an excellent product can be price prohibitive at this point in life. You can set up a plan that no longer needs funding after 15-16 years and it will cover you for the rest of your life.
Another option that is more expensive than term but cheaper than whole life is guaranteed universal life. GUL is basically life time term. You pay a set premium every month and they guarantee a payout up until the age you settled on like 90,100,110,121 or till you pass no age limit. This is not a savings account. It is not meant to be tapped for cash values. It is meant to work as a 40-50 year plus term policy.
Business Development Officer, T.D. McNeil Insurance Services, Fresno, California
All that is necessary to give you the best recommendation is to know the date that you will die. With that information we can provide you with the “best” policy. Since only a few of us know when that will occur it is important to know when our responsibilities will end. When will our death not make any difference to anyone? That doesn’t seem practical either. Other than the need to provide a lender protection for a certain period of time, the permanent policy seems the best alternative.
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When younger, an Insured person might count on the convertibility feature of Term life insurance to provide Permanent coverage, if needed, later on. But most Term policies are only convertible to permanent policies to between age 65 to age 75, depending on the policy. If a 60 year old person purchases a 20 year Term policy and does not pass away before age 80, the policy will jump sky high in premiums and there will no opportunity to convert it to a permanent policy at that time.
For the first two the answer is pretty easy, level term life. You are looking for coverage for a period of time, not a lifetime. You know the odds will be good that you're still alive after those years and will have to pay a higher cost to continue.
For your lifetime, what ever that may be? Whole life while an excellent product can be price prohibitive at this point in life. You can set up a plan that no longer needs funding after 15-16 years and it will cover you for the rest of your life.
Another option that is more expensive than term but cheaper than whole life is guaranteed universal life. GUL is basically life time term. You pay a set premium every month and they guarantee a payout up until the age you settled on like 90,100,110,121 or till you pass no age limit. This is not a savings account. It is not meant to be tapped for cash values. It is meant to work as a 40-50 year plus term policy.